Meanwhile in geekdom

There have been some cool developments amongst my various pleasurable pastimes here of late. The Mandalorian and a few video games are keeping Star Wars alive and honoring the best of that tradition. The Mandalorian is a series on Disney’s tv channel, and we’re about halfway through the second season. It’s essentially a western in space, which is what Lucas intended for Star Wars in general if memory serves.

Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni among many others have given the franchise a much needed shot in the arm after the sequel trilogy self destructed by the end. This past week’s episode was of special significance with the debut of Rosario Dawson as the first live action Ahsoka Tano. I thought they did a great job with the character - with everything from the look, her fighting style, and her place in the story line.

I sort of had to force myself to watch all of the Clone Wars series, although it got progressively better near the end. I haven’t watched the more recently released final season, but I’m feeling like I want to go through the entire series again. The Mandalorian has been doing a great job of bringing in characters from Clone Wars and the expanded universe, and this week’s episode had a name drop that I doubted I would ever hear. Ahsoka Tano was on a mission to locate a certain Imperial Admiral, and she was in the midst of this mission when the Mandalorian tracked her down.

When the episode played out, we found out she was seeking none other than Grand Admiral Thrawn. Since his character appeared in Rebels (I think), we’ve known for awhile that Disney was going to include him in the updated SW canon, but we’d never had any confirmation that he might appear in a live action show or movie.

Thrawn first appeared in Timothy Zahn’s Lucas approved trilogy in the early 90’s, and I still think it’s the best version of post original trilogy events yet written. The problem is that it took place immediately following the events of the original trilogy, so after the 90’s it would have needed reworking to make sense giving the aging of the characters. The Mandalorian takes place in the aftermath of the destruction of the second Death Star, so Thrawn is contemporary to that time.

Thrawn is arguably as interesting as any character in Star Wars canon in my experience. A member of the race of Chiss, he is a brilliant tactician, typically several moves ahead of both friend and foe. He can orchestrate large space battles as if he were a self-contained supercomputer. He uses a variety of techniques to understand other cultures, often obtaining priceless works of art for appreciation and as a means to understand the psyche of those who capture his interest. Zahn has written some more recent Thrawn sequel novels that I’ve read, and so far they’ve been a mixed bag, not necessarily as good as his original sequel trilogy. That said, there should be plenty of material to work with for The Mandalorian and whatever other properties they consider.

Also of note, there have been a few good games from the Star Wars milieu. Jedi: Fallen Order came out a year ago and is on the Xbox Game Pass as of now. I’ve played a bit and I’m enjoying it. Also of note was the release of Star Wars: Squadrons which is reminiscent of the classic X-Wing and Tie Fighter games for PC from the 90s. I’m still figuring out the controls and fighting schemes, but it’s a lot of fun.

I went against my own best judgment and padded my backlog even further this year by purchase of the Xbox Series X, the GamePass (which essentially means I’ll have dozens if not hundreds of potential games to choose from), as well as a few games on sale for black friday. I resisted the urge to buy most of them as they may eventually show up on GamePass or at least get an even bigger discount. I knew I would buy Cyberpunk 2077 no matter what, so I took advantage of at least a $10 if not $20 discount (not sure if it will cost $60 or $70 at launch) and bought the Xbox One version (which should upgrade to Series X for free) on Amazon. I also bought the three sequel games to Assassin’s Creed for $9 from the Microsoft store.

I think I documented my backlog a post or two back, but you can now add (at least): Assassin’s Creed II, AC Brotherhood, AC Revelations, SW Squadrons, SW Jedi: Fallen Order, and any number of GamePass games. I’ve already played through a season of Madden 2020 (which justified the GamePass purchase by itself since I usually only play through one season), and I’ve got several other games in the queue, including Forza Horizon 4 which has been a lot of fun thus far.

I’ve said it many times, but this modern era in which we live is the most fruitful and plentiful for media consumption. We’ve long since passed the point when there wasn’t anything to read, watch, or play. Now it’s a matter of triaging out what you will devote your time towards consuming. It’s a great problem to have.